Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE)

Originally a 5-volume printed set of dictionaries, the Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) documents words, phrases, and pronunciations that vary from one place to another across the United States. DARE is based on face-to-face interviews carried out in all 50 states between 1965 and 1970, and on a comprehensive collection of written materials including diaries, letters, novels, histories, biographies, newspapers, and more, from the colonial period to the present day.

The entries in DARE include regional pronunciations, variant forms, some etymologies, and regional and social distributions of the words and phrases.

Selected maps show where words were found in the 1,002 communities investigated during the fieldwork.

Some entries include audio recordings of the original DARE field interviews.

For a written or oral word to be included in DARE it must be a regional or folk term. Words from a standard dictionary are not included.

The DARE database can help with research along the lines of the well-cited “Pop vs Soda” debate.